@longtimelurker; Well, it's 27 weeks in, and he's not had so much of a sniff yet. He might even get so frustrated, he volunteers for the crossed, just for the sex . . . . . that would be an interesting twist.

I think the Crossed are more interesting as a monster, or enemy, than say your nomral Zombie. Other than that I don't worry so much about what makes them tick, or how they sustain themselves - as I find the whole logistics bit of the crossed world impossible. The crossed organism as an iduvidual or group seems doomed, even in the short term perspective. I figure they need energy to some extent so they have to eat, not to mention drink - how much of the water in the western world is pure enough to drink on C-Day? They would be full of disease and parasites..., slowly die of starvation..., if they are not killed off by other crossed or die from festering wounds..., and very soon, when all the normal humans, are gone, it's also the end of the crossed, as it's hard to see they would successfully raise any kids... :D

The logistic aspect for the uninfected is also almost as impossible. Everything has stopped working, more or less, so nobody makes anything anymore. Matches, needles, clothes, bullets, shovels - the supply is limited, and pretty much everything that is used wears out, sooner or later. So, unless your part of a tribe in some remote area of the world where conditions are more or less stone age - chances are good you're gonna' run out of stuff, should you be able to stay alive for any length of time...

...good episode..., and yeah Viceroy made it again..., hell, maybe he'll even get to tell his story before he kicks the bucket... :)

"…They’re all doomed, of course, and mostly they know it. But – as they see it – what’s the alternative? One of the big story threads we’ll be exploring revolves around precisely that notion. Now that you’ve found sanctuary… now that you’re settled and there’s nowhere left to run… what the fuck do you do with your life?"

Tabitha is guilty of anthropomorphising the comely school boy. He probably indicated to his chums that he could arrange a pleasurable rape & dismemberment session with an attractive art teacher. When he failed to deliver up the goods he became the next dish on the menu.

Viceroy has hidden depths. Ex SAS perhaps? He may go full Rambo & save the day.

It'll be interesting to see how Mr 'Brain Splatter' develops. He looks pretty hardcore.

I suppose when looked at from an entirely sociological viewpoint, it's the survivors who's behaviour is bucking the trend (in "crossed") The crossed live in small, itinerant groups of like minded individuals, usually with a strong leader, and who are ready to adapt to new situations, maximise available food sources, and evidently prosper. They remain cheerful and able to maintain a positive (if intellectually limited) outlook in the face of extreme adversity, and appear to be engaging in the levels of sexual activity necessary to ensure biological survival of the species. All that's happened is that they have adopted a distinctly different moral compass. Does that make them bad people? . . . . . . . (Rhetorical question)

In 200 years time, when these pockets of so called 'survivors' have dwindled away to nothing, it will be the Crossed that will have ensured the future of our species, it will be men like Horsecock who will be remembered as the folk heroes of the future, the Robin Hoods of their day. The Crossed's adherence to their new (even if currently abhorrent) paradigm of reduced social skills may be what is evolutionarily vital for Humanity to survive. At least they don't have room for Bankers, Lawyers, or Governments, and that has to count for something at least.

ETA: And it's not often that reading comics (especially ones about cannibal rapezombies) has actually increasedmy daily working English vocabulary, so many thanks Si, for "Retardulous". I've used it in conversation 4 times since yesterday, and I didn't once feel at all ridiculated.

I've always felt like the Crossed don't worry about parasites and such in unclean water because their bodies run so hot all the time it's like they're constantly running a fever, burning out anything bad. Also, the Crossed virus just overpowers all other viruses, I would think.

I can't see the Crossed having the patience to deal with the challenges of parenthood. An infant would be regarded as an interesting sex toy / tasty snack and nothing more. They'd die off relatively quickly. They lead pretty unhealthy lifestyles & live a putrid environment. A combination of homocidal violence, vd, dysentry & hypothermia would wipe 'em out after a decade or so.

For me, any zombie epic works better as a metaphor. I find myself less interested in the realistic aspect, as in, "How would the zombies survive and how many years would they last?" and more fascinated by the parallels to real life, like, "Can you believe how quickly everyone started reading FIFTY SHADES OF GREY and playing ANGRY BIRDS?"

At its root, any zombie epic is a story of possession. The zombies used to be "normal" but now are possessed by a compulsion to do things they would ordinarily never do. To an outsider, the behavior resembles a horde. Usually the only recourse is death or assimilation.

Shaky is not Crossed, but look at what the bastards have already forced him to do. He's shot at least three kids in the face. He's leading expeditions to forage for supplies. He used to write in a coffee shop, and while Tabitha reminds him that is an important use of time, it was probably the ONLY thing he ever did. But now he has a cunning and a ruthlessness that gets him where he needs to go. He considers men like Rab and Jackson and the Gamekeeper, not as strong men who will protect him and that he needs, but often as rivals he must contend against, learn from, and eventually conquer. It is a powerful mindset. He is a thousand times stronger than that man who fled the coffee shop.

"The Robin Hoods of their time," yes, BadBeast, my young whippersnapper, that is very insightful, and I don't mean any irony in that, even though you might've. Remember that the real Robin Hoods lived in an age that was very, very dangerous. You had to pay outrageous sums for protection (as much as two-thirds to nine-tenths of your income in most cases) and the heroes were the men who stole from the "protectors" and gave back to the people so that they wouldn't starve.

Horsecock certainly wasn't a "hero," but he was a leader, and he was very quick to recognize who among the outsiders were the biggest threats. His form of warfare was not just rape/slash/kill, but EXTERMINATION, and he specifically targeted the child among the group. It's all about eliminating the offspring of your enemies and replacing them with your own offspring. The Crossed are new, and immature, but their tactics and methods of warfare are ancient. Horsecock led, because he was the most ANIMAL, he led with the concept of helping the pack survive in the here and now and pushing the species as a whole to become more ANIMAL as well. He even carries the reproductive tool of an animal. That's not an accident. During the sabbatical, Stan meets a wolf pack.

Getting back to that concept of possession. The brilliance of Garth's idea was to invent a new kind of zombie and then explore what kind of zombie it could be. The brilliance lied in the fact that we don't know everything about this new zombie, that this new zombie could threaten us in unexplored ways. The Crossed is actually the protagonist. It is inconceivable that the Crossed would have offspring. It seems impossible. But if the Crossed are the evolutionary next step, the Cro-magnon man to which the Neanderthal must adapt or perish, then it follows that humanity after the Crossed will be something entirely different. We don't know what that is yet because it remains to be seen. We need artists of brilliance to discover it and show it to us, and I trust Spurrier and the team will.

Tabitha's explanation is daft, but while she doesn't hit the bullseye I think she's in the first or second inner ring.

Well, on examination, the Crossed have shown (at least, the remnants) of many positive human qualities. There has been altruism, in the form of Stumpy riding on the back of wossname, then Horsecock. (I know Horsecock had an ulterior motive, but at some point, someone picked him up just because he couldn't walk himself)

Co-operation, through commonality, so there is obviously enough social awareness to utilise established Tribal dynamics like following totems (Horsecock's Horse's cock), or defiling the totems of others. (Crucifixions)

Delayed gratification, when weighed against mission accomplishment, and the ability to make complex organisational decisions on the spot, all suggest that there's nothing wrong with their logical deduction process, or their basic levels of intelligence.

I suppose what I really mean is that technically, the only difference between the Crossed, and the survivors, is a degree of impulse control. They are driven by the same basic urges, to fuck, to consume, and to establish dominance over your weaker fellows as the rest of us are. They're just more honest about it. For success at this basic instinctive level, intellect is superfluous, so it's been put on a back boiler for now. And the only reason they don't seem to reproduce, is probably down to basic uterine abuse. Once those crossed chicks get start to get preggers, there should still be a release of hormones that forces a semblance of motherhood in them. There certainly hasn't been any sign of hormonal deficiency among the Crossed so far.

As an evolutionary step, (assuming they can breed) they still show great potential for human survival.

I think the crossed are just meant to be a variation of the zombie, a suitable monster for a scary story, nothing more. There were probably never much thought put into the biology of the crossed, and it is irrelevant to dwell on it because it will not be explained.

But in comparison to the uninfected the crossed seem truly inferior in every way and their only strength seems to be their numbers. Because the laws of the crossed universe seems to dictate that the unifected are unable to counter attack, defend a fixed position in the long run and can only stay alive if constantly on the move - the crossed will nevertheless always have the upper hand.

However, it is easy to see how the unorganised, small groups of crossed who's only fighing tactic includes the suicidal headlong rush into the fray - would be exploited by the much smarter uninfected. I don't really see how the crossed could beat a Challanger tank, not to mention a platoon, or a company of tanks. How they could storm a castle. Nor do I see how the crossed rabble would cope with chemical warfare, they'd die like flies. :)

But, there can of course not be any chemical warfare against the crossed, as the crossed stories seem to be really about how the survaviours get killed off, not how they beat their enemy. ;-)

They storm a castle by fucking a load of hamsters they found in a pet shop, then playing cricket with them and whacking them for six over the castle walls. Spermy hamster debris is enough to turn the people inside. Job done.

A tank? Spermy hamsters down the gun pipe, then a cork, or I dunno... a big baking potato, then BANG:- Spermy hamster all over the crew inside. Job done.

The Crossed are more than just horny zombies or monsters for the protagonist to overcome. The quality of writing throughout the Crossed universe has incrementally given many of them histories, motivations, personalities even, thereby turning them into separate characters too. So we've unwittingly been tricked by the exceptional writing into empathizing with the filthy bastards on some level. They interest us enough for us to want to know more about them, to speculate on their condition, we lap up any plot that gets even a little way into their makeup. So, they're not just the two dimensional badwrong bastards that they could be. They are a plot device to goad the reader into examining parts of their own humanity that otherwise wouldn't get to see the light of day. Not that that's necessarily a good thing. I know Ennis gets a bit dark sometimes, but when he came up with The Crossed, he really did flush out the foetid bilge tanks of his rather 'singular' imagination. And Si and David have certainly picked up the bones and run with it beautifully. The Infected mirror us as a species with more definition than the survivors do. That's some good writing, that is.

I guess not. Maybe better to call it a purifying fire, weeding out whoever is weak or defenseless. I know that's harsh. If the Crossed broke out, I wouldn't survive the first day. I know that. Most people wouldn't. The world the Crossed would give us would be worse in every way. It is a perfect nightmare. WYWH shows the truth of that, I think, both in the early scenes and the aftermath. Yes, it's fiction. But it TOUCHES the truth, if that makes any sense. The Greeks and Romans never thought their civilization would end either. But they weren't destroyed by civilization; they were destroyed by barbarism. When the average citizen loses basic survival skills it puts the society at risk.